sitting with opposition members is one thing but taking part in rallies that's interference and domestic affairs russia's prime minister calls the e.u. politicians to stop meddling in ukraine's business as policing here gives pro e.u. protesters a deadline now to decamped from government buildings. tributes pouring after the death of nelson mandela we'll look at his journey from ostracised rebel to a global symbol of compassion and equality and. past a wide jaw my self-esteem. the gambling machines that are getting increasing numbers of brits hoped we discover bookies who keep the cash coming in as government regulation flounders.

well over a good evening schieffer just joined us for a good day if you company it's just past nine pm here in moscow my name is kevin irwin and this is our t. international our top story tonight protesters in kiev have been given five days now to stop disrupting government departments opposition activists have been blocking most key institutions for much of this week is a topic that would have been tough to avoid too for the country's president victory on a covert she's been meeting his russian counterpart in such a stance a bit talk about economic revival was more about that meeting is a really good. the meeting was a short working meeting and the two presidents have discussed largely the economic aspects it really is no surprise economy is something that is why the importance of to the entire situation in ukraine the fact that she was a stopover flight for the ukrainian president on his way back from china where he

has met with his chinese colleagues and the training president said that he has signed a number of deals that are mounting to roughly eight billion dollars in investments now while unocal which was trying to figure out a way for ukraine to solve its financial issues here in the year of the independence square was essentially teeming with foreign dignitaries. european as well as american officials have shown up to take part in the always seem meeting which was taking place in kiev and they lost no time to come by examine the tent city. especially talk with a grotesque there's a meeting with the opposition figures especially with the likes of beachgoers the darling of the ukrainian opposition at the moment and the western politicians it seems that we've had german swedish the. foreign minister of the netherlands

all of them were here last night i know that the tension that the western officials are showing to the ukrainian protests has raised a number of vibe browse and there is quite a few observers who are saying that this type of attention from western politicians to the protest in ukraine is simply just not quite appropriate in the given circumstances. with those concerns about russia's prime minister dmitry medvedev to during his traditional pretty new year q. and a with russian journalists. but i can imagine how our german partners would have felt if russia's foreign minister decided to attend a rally that was being held against german rule i don't think they would consider it a friendly step out of a meeting with opposition members is one thing but taking part in rallies that's interference and domestic offense the minister the prime minister political analyst

alexander public tell this is some foreign politician position it just doesn't tally with the democratic standards. this is a clear clear appearance in the internal affairs of a sovereign country and they're not even hiding more so this is something that should be unacceptable. as a democratic standard you just have to have call our country to make its own song choice and western diplomats are just not doing that and they're not really concerning themselves about your actual situation or the benefit of the country or the people if you're just looking at it from the economic standpoint the e.u. and the west have nothing to offer it's a slow it's about democracy human rights it's so it's really just a big. chance game and it's pretty simple actually.

the world's mourning the loss of one of the twentieth century's most iconic leaders nelson mandela who has died aged ninety five after a long illness so the africa's first black president of the man who led the country out of decades of apartheid to democracy spent his final years being most of home in johannesburg crowds gathered in the city to grieve to celebrate the legacy of the man they knew. after a state funeral on december fifteenth he's expected to be buried in a private family summer true in his home village in accordance with his wishes world leaders praised mandela as a hero of our time and of joy for justice some of the most glowing tributes have come from united kingdom news laura smith reports. here at the south african embassy in london and a public buildings all around the city flags are flying at half mast to mark the death of nelson mandela there are around half a million south africans living in this country and some of them have come here to the embassy to lay flowers and pay tribute to the passing of mandela and of course

tributes flooding in from elsewhere to the royal family prince william for example has called him an extraordinary and inspiring man the queen has paid a personal tribute talking of the great warmth she feels when she thinks of mandela saying that he worked tirelessly for his country and his legacy is the peaceful south africa that we see today and political chippies the flooding in from all over the world lead in this country by david cameron he called mandela a towering figure a true global hero and says a great light has gone out. but this is all in her own around if we look just at the conservative movement for example in one thousand nine hundred seventy margaret thatcher who slammed him as a terrorist the a.n.c. could never rule south africa anyone who thought so it was. david cameron also around that made a trip to south africa as a rising star in the conservative movement and they were. a lot being against

sanctions on the apartheid movement so most certainly. now it's not clear whether david cameron was personally involved but certainly the organization he belonged to was and it was a similar picture in the us but actually even more delayed in terms of his rehabilitation if you like. or was on the terror list and he and his associates were removed from the database intil as late as two thousand and eight nine years after his presidency of south africa was already over my colleague paula steer has been looking at this in more detail at mandela's life over in south africa. he's the man who pulled a troubled and divided land back from the brink of civil war the man who after twenty seven tough years behind bars walks free from prison in his heart was not revenge i think that his greatest legacy to this country is reconciliation but in the last three decades the world tirelessly polished the image of nelson mandela

and image recognized around the world only coca-cola is better known better men who struggle for racial equality again south africa's ruling white minority had a dark side the world has conveniently forgotten about nelson mandela been leader of the struggle. a radical. someone who. embraced violence as a necessary political instrument at a particular juncture in our history and this house was the secret headquarters of the african national congress it was here in the early sixty's that mandela and his comrades launched the armed struggle it was also here that most of them were arrested put on trial and sentenced to life in prison south african journalist chris bishop believes the one nine hundred sixty four trial that saw mandela and his comrades sentenced to life helped turn the world in their favor during the trial. these gentlemen who are on trial the rivonia trial as they went from

being the accused of being people in the dark as slowly transformed they became the benjamin franklin's of africa became the freedom fighters that began the man of principle who is standing up merely for the rights of others and it's only to turn world opinion around from a vile terrorist to one of the greatest freedom fighters to have ever walked the earth the story of nelson mandela is remarkable a man who stood up for the rights of people everywhere but also a familiar tale of governments putting all gone into for. flowers around your neck one day and evoke the next point r.t. johannesburg south africa. read more about the fight for fairness which define nelson mandela's life as well as reactions to his legacy and death at r.t. dot com. they are gambling

devices which can drain all your cash in seconds but in britain the booming however rules to tighten up on fixed all those betting machines known as the crack cocaine of the high street are floundering these days and a set of further ports makes that means payday for the bookmakers. there are high risk high stakes gaming machines this in the u.k. betting industry more than a billion pounds each year for. the short fix but. back to. comply. to one hundred every twenty seconds this is a twenty second repeat cycle every twenty seconds. with. three hundred power my children my wife my job my self esteem.

ok. the government's two thousand and five gambling act limited the number of. betting shops allowed to have to four machines now more recently in response to both public and political concern the association of british bookmakers has released a voluntary code of conduct aimed at encouraging socially responsible behavior but we've seen evidence of among some leading high street. everyone seems to be playing strictly by the rules inside this labrat says a glass petition it enables the store to carry not full but eight for the machines which are the ones. that you. are. in a statement about the store. this shop was a concept shop and there are no plans to open any further shops of this kind.

in terms of. responsible behind a completely responsible ex army major just in ase well how devastating the effects of a gambling addiction can be a last point was a day when. my mom my dad and my little brother he's actually taller than me came and just said that we've got to get you out of here. and i was just crying and. that's when i lost all my pride and i was completely humiliated but it's great because that was the day i realized my recovery happened justin's written a book about his experience and is helping others on their rates to recovery but with scant research into the effects of these machines and as the industry seeks to

maximize profits campaign is warning that not taking action eva for pity's is one gamble person can't afford to take surf on the london talking of which the shale gas david and goliath struggles approach to resume in romania it's been talked about a law in britain is also happening in romania the details on the plus why there was a fast food walker in the states there's a couple of the stories we're covering one after this quick break. the continuing inconsistent rise of china declaring restrictive fly zones or a critical view on the subject of buying u.s. dollar debt in fact it would appear china is tearing a page from washington's playbook it too will make rules to fit its geopolitical interests. deliberate torch is on

its epic journey to. one hundred twenty three days. through two hundred cities of russia. really fourteen thousand people or sixty five thousand killing. in a record setting trip by land air sea and others face. a limp torch relay. on r t v dot com. hello again france has launched a military operation in the central african republic game to curb big

a surge in sectarian violence earlier u.n. security council resolution authorized french troops to join an african peacekeeping mission the latest clashes between rival militias in the capital bungy have killed over one hundred people muslim rebels who seized power in march of fighting christians who support the ousted president from that spot phase of the conflict could expand into a full blown sectarian war sometimes branded the policeman of africa france has remained active on the continent ever since the colonial era. in fact is a map of france's former colonies over the past decade alone france has led interventions in the democratic republic of congo or ivory coast chad and most recently course of mali aside from its involvement in libya now paris refused a request from the central african republic for intervention during a rebellion earlier this year then it said it would not back a corrupt regime but things change the recent bloodshed has prompted friends to pledge immediate action simon tisdall foreign affairs columnist for the guardian

newspaper thinks the french are taking on a highly dangerous endeavor. to reestablish some authority and some national interest in areas where they will fall in the clone you interventions are very high risk it much easier to get in than to get out your understanding of a thousand troops that are going for two hundred troops into tulips the french contingent when this deployment is complete for a country which is much bigger than from us and the chances are that you know who is the rest more more men more material on all resources will do so in the conflict will intensify in mali for instance or go and interventional soon supposed to be quote shortened. french are still there in quite some numbers that you hardly see the militants the armed gangs that came aboard from sudan and chad and so on are still slee and turned institutions of the french who thought just resume their

attempts to go the country. u.s. energy giant chevron resumed searching for shell gas in a romanian village has been the center of an anti fracking protest now for over two months this is what happened earlier this week as police clashed with demonstrators more actions expected tomorrow to local newspaper said to forty campaigners were beaten by police for setting up camp next to the fields targeted for drilling shell gas is extracted by pumping toxic fluid into the ground but the fear of over it all is that these chemicals can containing. toxic substances accumulate the soil in the water table even evaporate into the atmosphere as george told neither george by the way campaigns that for environmental safety joins on the line from london either georgia but you're alarmed by this that it's going ahead despite these protests several notes saying that it's a priority is to conduct drilling quote in a safe and environmentally responsible manner are you not trusting them why.

this is the claim that we've heard from from the outside this is what we heard initially in the states and huge evidence has now emerged to show that that hasn't been the case and we've heard in the u.k. that it's going to be different from the us and we have a more a more complex regulation procedure in this country but it's effectively a self-regulation procedure. and what we're saying remain here is roughly the same as what we've seen in the u.k. namely government come to power on promises of respecting the environment because that was very much very much popular among the voters and the same as the currently to go into power he started getting into bed with with chevron and big fossil fuel interests against the wishes was yeah. probably what a lot of the last you put on a fast track has made the treasury chief slash fracking if it's as bad as you say it is why have comprehended it. sorry could you repeat the question you know it's good to see you talk about the promise of the despite the green credentials that he

came into power all he's actually fast tracking fracking in the u.k. indeed the treasury chief slash tax for fraud to bring it all so what have they not worried about that you all worried about. i mean they seem to be not worried about future generations about the use you mentioned already in terms of contamination to water which is me hugely documented in the us and one of the key experts on the science of geology involved and the techniques involved says that at least five percent of the wells crack initially as they drilled and the next up to fifty percent will have broken within within thirty years and it goes to even ten years down the line this is a technology that only works in a very short so the companies that have done the drilling will have left less this poisonous mess behind them and it will be virtually impossible for the communities who are affected to actually get any kind of redress and ultimately you know even if they were money on the table which seems incredibly unlikely that any stage

there is no replacement for clean water and clean air and there are very very real concerns across the world but what you see essentially is this battle between big business and the interests of the people and a consistent pattern both in the u.k. and roumania where you're seeing major figures from the energy industry moving into into government directly brown in the u.k. the next head of b.p. also has a thirty percent stake in core drilling which is one of the key company's perspective in the u.k. and here was he stands to make a huge amount of money out of this personally and he will so it gets to a point many other people in government that clearly a following the same line but david cameron as i came to came to power on the promise of being the greenest government ever and what we've seen is exactly the opposite in rumania it seems actually the same scenario we see a leader that says there's no it's just that people want it and then when he's in power he starts dancing to the tune as a these major players like chevron and what we've seen recently is just very brutal

. of the peaceful parts of that i mean for a number of months in romania all the entrances to the village were shut off it was a military style operation none of the press was allowed to go in there there are reports from credit. brutality we haven't seen anything quite so bad in the u.k. yet as usual in the richer countries they do it more softly softly but the effect is the same that the rushing through with this insanely damaging technology to anyone who's been there looking at the recent climate talks for instance understands really can't be pursued if we were remotely serious about giving a decent course george the problem the bottom line here is that the general public . may be about the involve no not even a little concerned about the environment that got kids to bring jobs to do they want cheap fuel. absolutely and i think this is one of the lawyers being. here any romania that you know. maybe it will poison your children but it's going

to be cheap through the international energy agency has done a report looking at the projections of gas prices over the next eight years going to twenty twenty they're expecting a forty percent rise what's happening is the very artificial the cheap price of gas in the u.s. at the moment which has doubled in the last year and a half or so already and which is set to get much much higher soon as the rival to expose it to the rest of the world that very cheap price is being used to sell people in europe but everybody who understands how the european and you know if it knows that this gas will be sold at global prices sort of lost in the world and is being paid in the u.s. at the moment and in romania as in the u.k. there's very little prospect that the local communities that are suffering this this immense risk to the local environment will get any any reward for that at least in america the local people who are having wells drilled on my land do get paid for it that the people in neighboring plots of land the ones that have to

suffer the consequences the huge increase rates of those kinds of sorcery spiritual problems thousands of families are being forced to move out of the areas and one of the reasons that we're not hearing more about the specific stories of illness is that in order to get any kind of compensation from these fucking companies they have to settle out of court because they can't begin to fight the legal battles that chevron kind of pulled george we got to leave it signed gag order this children got to use it as well as signing the guy go to you know we could feel like you're going to throw your kids defense to give you should be just come into the studio to not judge part of their social environmental justice company here in london thank you. overlarge the dog home we're talking about from tiffany bling to caribbean cruises a decade long spending spree by dozens of russian diplomats in america is being reported on they could now find themselves in trouble being blamed for defrauding the u.s. medicare system to their lavish lifestyles which by the delegations online also

online to details of how small when schools are in classrooms are banned in eastern china for a long standing problem but now they're thinking about artificial rain to be introduced to try to loot some of the country's suffocating pollution interested reader r.t. dot com. thousands of fast food and retail workers in the united states staged national strike on thursday calling for an increase to the minimum wage president obama pledged to push for higher salaries in the industry back in february but critics say that has been done since reporter was at the protest in new york. began here in new york city one year ago with just two hundred employees has exploded into arguably the biggest wave of protest in the history of america's fast food industry thousands of fast food employees in more than one hundred cities throughout this country have walked off the job thursday demanding an increase in minimum wage and the right to unionize now this movement is being spearheaded by an

organization called fast food forward and the fast food workers that have joined the strike work at meijer restaurants like wendy's mcdonald's burger king and k.f.c. now while fast food remains a two hundred billion dollar industry the median wage for the service workers like the cooks and the cashiers in the group nationwide is just eight dollars and ninety four cents an hour here in new york city it's even worse with the minimum wage being seven dollars twenty five cents an hour now because of the low wages and many of the employees if not most employed at fast food restaurants are living in poverty i don't know why by the grace of god i am. i am in a shelter or trying to get out of there and i can do it because i don't get paid that much some struggling you know and that's why i'm here as one of these we will

four million dollars they ask for right to take it a family where the single people will nest america away and i believe all fall there's envision a country not full cooperation before the working man and by mother make way too much money for us to be treated like this where the one will give them the money back with the one earns and then it's like we're not earning them because they're the one who takes the money home to make matters worse this problem is only growing loneliness jobs have accounted for the bulk of new jobs added during the so-called us. harbury in addition to retail costs are among the fastest growing sectors in the u.s. economy and what these protesters are demanding is that minimum wage be raised between dollars an hour so far only one city in washington state has met those demands this crowd around me they're doing so quite sure a basic decent living wage an opportunity to just step one foot into the worlds of

the so called american dream reporting from new york marina r.t. . just ahead because barack obama really just might just have a way for the world through its true will be said to move towards real people's concerns florida break in the next. we often see the middle east as a place of constant turmoil and revolution but people in thailand seem to be very fired up as well masses of protesters are force a government ministries to shut down by storming them with human waves one such ministry is the thai equivalent of the american f.b.i. which has been accused of killing around ninety people in a crackdown on those who support ousted prime minister taksin shinawatra who is the brother of the current leader while people are crying out for democracy with accusations of violence against protesters so where is barack obama john kerry the

mainstream media i mean whatever some group of rebels protestors are i mean freedom fighters rise up for democracy are we supposed to arm them like in syria and or bomb their country back into the stone age like in libya serbia iraq some protest explode across the mainstream media with calls for intervention and others are almost totally silent like thailand and bulgaria where there have also been strong winds of buildings less than a month ago i might be a conspiracy theorist but the selective coverage and selective concern for some humans rights and not for the rights of others well it smells a bit fishy to me but that's just my opinion. please please

please please. please . what's happening to me goes i'm not a martin this is breaking this set so yesterday obama gave a really impressive and wide ranging speech on an issue that we have affects us tonight nine percent income inequality he said that the gap between the rich and the rest of the country is the defining challenge of our time and that it drives everything he doesn't have is yes obama even went as far as he can.